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| Photo: Insideline.com |
- Boise State University engineering students will head to Bonneville in August, in an attempt to break the 215-mph land speed record for diesel trucks.
- The students will be driving a 1998 Chevrolet S-10 that they've modified to run on vegetable oil.
- Last fall they smashed the existing mark for vegetable oil-fueled vehicles with a 139-mph run at El Mirage in California, then logged a second run at 155 mph.
WASHINGTON — Engineering students from Boise State University will head to the Bonneville Salt Flats in August, in an attempt to break the land speed record for diesel trucks — with a 1998 Chevrolet S-10 modified to run on vegetable oil.
The students, who are all members of the engineering school's Greenspeed club, spent $125,000 building the pickup. They smashed the existing mark for vegetable oil-fueled vehicles with a run of 139 mph at El Mirage in California's Mojave Desert last fall. They boosted that further with a second run of 155 mph.
The current diesel truck speed record is 215 mph.
The school, perhaps better known for its nationally ranked football program, said the land speed record project "was designed to demonstrate the potential of vegetable oil as an alternative to traditional petroleum fuel products."
"Greenspeed is leading by example to show that you don't have to sacrifice performance for sustainability," Mark Rudin, Boise State's vice president for research and economic development, said. "A truck that goes 200 mph on vegetable oil is hardly a practical machine, but it plays a critical role in dispelling persistent myths that there is something magical or special about petroleum. Sustainable fuels can be good fuels."
Source: Insideline
